Lee Konitz | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/lee-konitz
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Lee Konitz/Brad Mehldau: Live at Birdland – reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/12/brad-mehldau-jazz-lee-konitz-birdland-review
(ECM)<p>When pianist Mehldau, sax legend Konitz and bassist Charlie Haden got together on a 1997 Blue Note session, it&nbsp;not only showed how sympathetic to&nbsp;improvising on&nbsp;familiar songs all three were, but it also helped put the then little-known Mehldau on the map. They&nbsp;reconvene on this captivating live&nbsp;set – totally unpremeditated, without even a setlist – with Paul Motian added on drums. Konitz's sometimes plaintive alto sound&nbsp;and outwardly meandering explorations can&nbsp;suggest a rather ascetic&nbsp;music for those unused to intuitively spun improv that takes a&nbsp;relaxed view of the integrity of famous&nbsp;tunes. But Mehldau's uncanny amplification of Konitz's phrases, and his breathtaking solos on Lullaby of Birdland, Solar, and You Stepped Out of&nbsp;a Dream (in which the pianist Haden and Motian sound even more of a dream&nbsp;team than might have been anticipated) are irresistible, as is Konitz's imaginative distortion of the architecture of I Fall in&nbsp;Love Too Easily, and the classical-sounding duo rhapsody that piano and sax get into at its close. Nor is this exclusively a low-key exercise: it includes four-way up-tempo discussions that fizz with collective energy. <strong>John Fordham</strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/12/brad-mehldau-jazz-lee-konitz-birdland-review">Continue reading...</a>Brad MehldauLee KonitzMusicCultureJazzThu, 12 May 2011 20:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/12/brad-mehldau-jazz-lee-konitz-birdland-reviewJohn Fordham2011-05-12T20:30:01ZLee Konitz/Dave Leibman: Knowing Lee - reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/28/lee-konitz-dave-leibman-knowing-lee-review
Even at 83 years old, saxophonist Lee Konitz still displays an admirable spirit of exploration, writes John Fordham<p>Eighty-three or not, saxophonist Lee&nbsp;Konitz never seems to lose his enthusiasm for new musical situations. In this one, he's shooting the breeze with Dave Liebman, a sax master of a later generation (though they were both Miles Davis employees, Konitz for Birth of the Cool in 1948-51, Liebman with the early electric bands in 1972-74) and the versatile pianist Richie Beirach. Given the sparse lineup and the devotion of all three players to floating improv melody and counterpoint free of the songs and harmonies they're based on, this is inevitably a pretty distilled jazz exercise that favours practised listeners. But it's&nbsp;the most human and humane of encounters. Beirach has a shrewd awareness of when the free-fall dances of his partners could use the odd bluesy chord-turn or harmony-anchoring chord, and his tender duet with Konitz on their impromptu Universal Lament (with the saxist unusually playing soprano, but massaging it into the alto's tonality) is wonderful. The songs are classic standards and originals. Body and Soul opens like two birds intoning their own approximation to the refrain, and What Is This Thing Called Love grippingly balances Liebman's tenor grittiness, Konitz's gauzy sound and Beirach's hard-swinging punch.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/28/lee-konitz-dave-leibman-knowing-lee-review">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 28 Apr 2011 21:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/28/lee-konitz-dave-leibman-knowing-lee-reviewJohn Fordham2011-04-28T21:00:00ZLee Konitz/Warne Marsh: Lee Konitz With Warne Marsh | Jazz reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/15/lee-konitz-wayne-marsh-review
(PWR)<p>Lee Konitz, the octogenarian alto-saxophonist who came to fame playing on Miles Davis's 1949 Birth of the Cool sessions, is still devoted to the sound of surprise. Warne Marsh, the tenor saxist partnering him on these classic sessions from the late 1940s and mid-50s, died in 1987 – an improv purist largely neglected back then as an oblique and soft-toned performer unfashionably at odds with the fiercer free-jazz and fusion sax sounds dominating the jazz world. Marsh and Konitz took their inspiration from the implacable pianist Lennie Tristano, who believed the narrative of the notes could say everything that needed saying, and that big dynamic contrasts, crescendos or high volume were just plain vulgar. But if these two saxophonists play with an even, almost chilly undemonstrativeness, their melodic ingenuity is dazzling – a demonstration of creativity within the strict boundaries of chord forms that almost rivals Charlie Parker's. Marsh's brittle, plaintive sound and outwardly methodical constructions disguise a warmth and an energetic intelligence. They make a fine foil to Konitz's more whimsical approach and closer affinities with Parkeresque bop. The bonus on the 1949 tracks is the five-star, bebop rhythm section of bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke. Low-key, timeless classics.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/15/lee-konitz-wayne-marsh-review">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 15 Jul 2010 21:31:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jul/15/lee-konitz-wayne-marsh-reviewJohn Fordham2010-07-15T21:31:11ZLee Konitz: Complete 1956 Quartets/Live at the Village Vanguard | CD reviewshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/may/06/lee-konitz-cd-reviews
(Enja/American Jazz Classics)<p>Cool school sax octogenarian Lee Konitz is revisited frequently on these pages, but no apology is necessary. Konitz can sound a little querulous these days, but he approaches every playing situation as if its volatility and seductive potential were still a thrill, and his cliche-avoiding reflexes are as sharp as ever. These two sets represent him as he sounded last year at New York's Village Vanguard (with the Cologne-based Trio Minsarah), and in 1956 with various bop groups, whose lineups included pianist Jimmy Rowles, guitarist Billy Bauer and British&nbsp;bassist Peter Ind. The 1956 music, which offers the extra frisson of&nbsp;a&nbsp;grittier Konitz on tenor rather than alto&nbsp;sax, is often so freewheeling and inventive you want to&nbsp;stand up and cheer – except that the style is so low-key, it would almost be sacrilegious. The&nbsp;Vanguard 2009 set is more of a feature for the percussive and&nbsp;loose-limbed Trio Minsarah, with Konitz's thinner sound and more tentative turns&nbsp;sometimes trailing in its&nbsp;wake. But&nbsp;the playfulness with which&nbsp;they disguise familiar tunes is attractive, and&nbsp;the opportunity to hear the original Kary's&nbsp;Trance on both sets – played with&nbsp;an effervescent bounce in 1956, more yearningly now – offers an illuminating angle on one of jazz's surviving giants.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/may/06/lee-konitz-cd-reviews">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 06 May 2010 21:20:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/may/06/lee-konitz-cd-reviewsJohn Fordham2010-05-06T21:20:02ZLee Konitz/Grace Kelly: GraceFullLee | CD reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/25/lee-konitz-grace-kelly-gracefullee
(Pazz Productions)<p>Considering Lee Konitz's considerable age, some might double-take this album and wonder if it could be a long-lost 1950s relic revealing Princess Grace Kelly as a closet bebopper. In this incarnation, however, she turns out to be a US-raised Korean alto saxophonist who was just 15 in 2008 when she recorded this superb set, with a buzzing Konitz and a fine group including guitarist Russell Malone. Those who have heard Konitz's unquenchably inventive, tirelessly curious improvising will relish his cliche-purged style. But the formidable Kelly's grasp of that approach, and twisting of it with wayward diversions and rhythmic surprises, brings the sometimes laconic Konitz to the boil. For devotees of the classic cool school style, this is an exquisite contemporary example – with Kelly and Malone toying playfully with Konitz's exit notes on his famously devious SubconsciousLee; a gorgeous unfolding of the melody of There Is No Greater Love over arco bass; a gambolling two-sax dialogue on Alone Together; and at times some fearless free improvisation.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/25/lee-konitz-grace-kelly-gracefullee">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 25 Feb 2010 23:45:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/25/lee-konitz-grace-kelly-gracefulleeJohn Fordham2010-02-25T23:45:02ZLee Konitz/Peter Ind | Jazz reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/22/lee-konitz-peter-ind-review
606 Club, London<p>Lee Konitz, the 82-year-old ­Chicagoan alto saxophonist who played on Miles Davis's classic Birth of the Cool recordings back in 1949, was one of the few players of his era to be inspired by Charlie Parker without trying to clone him. But if he remains a master of the method, Konitz celebrates it as a ­dedicated in-the-moment ­improviser, not as the inflexible curator of an ­antique style.</p><p>Konitz's partner was the UK's Peter Ind, the double-bassist who studied alongside him in the early 1950s with the fearsome original Cool School guru, pianist Lennie Tristano. Ind's ­seamlessly flowing lines were perfect for the ­saxophonist's purring long figures, inquisitively turning fills and throwaway ­resolutions. Drummer Rod Youngs swapped the funk, ­reggae and swing licks he plays with Jazz Jamaica for the style's unobtrusively ­whispering&nbsp;­manner, as if he had grown up with it.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/22/lee-konitz-peter-ind-review">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMiles DavisMusicCultureMon, 22 Feb 2010 22:50:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/22/lee-konitz-peter-ind-reviewJohn Fordham2010-02-22T22:50:00ZGrace Kelly & Lee Konitz: GracefulLee | CD reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/21/grace-kelly-lee-konitz-review
(Pazz)<p>This Grace Kelly is a 17-year-old Korean-American who plays the alto saxophone. Lee Konitz is 82 and does the same. In terms of accomplishment, there's little to choose between them. Ms Kelly is a remarkable musician, not because she's a brilliant player - that's taken for granted - but because she has the judicious poise of a veteran. She obviously loves playing with Konitz, but the best tracks are the ones where she is alone with just one accompanist. That's when her melodic gifts have a chance to shine. She really is something.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/21/grace-kelly-lee-konitz-review">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureSun, 21 Feb 2010 00:06:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/21/grace-kelly-lee-konitz-reviewDave Gelly2010-02-21T00:06:12ZLee Konitz/Martial Solal: Star Eyes 1983 | CD reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/11/lee-konitz-martial-solal-star-eyes-1983-review
(hatOLOGY)<p>Chicago sax-improviser Lee Konitz and the great French pianist Martial Solal were a regular duo partnership in the 1980s, and this live set catches them in Europe in 1983, on a programme featuring standards, plus two originals from Konitz and one from Solal. As Art Lange's liner notes observe, Konitz's visionary mentor, Lennie Tristano, ­believed that the more familiar a theme is, the greater the pressure on the interpreter to change it, maybe to the borderlines of recognition. Both players passionately espouse that attitude, with Solal stretching the envelope so boldly as to almost eclipse the inventive saxophonist. Konitz sounds shrill and uneasy at the outset, while Solal hurtles ecstatically through chord-­hammerings, breezy runs and abstract lines switching abruptly into swing-walks on Just Friends and Star Eyes. But with Konitz's own It's You, the equilibrium is ­restored, and the saxophonist's classic Subconscious-Lee beautifully balances an almost frivolous lightness and an ­implied and deep-down pulse. On his own, on the ballad April, Konitz improvises with an irresistably playful sobriety. But Solal, a comparable jazz giant sidelined by his nationality, is unstoppable from first to last.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/11/lee-konitz-martial-solal-star-eyes-1983-review">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 10 Sep 2009 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/11/lee-konitz-martial-solal-star-eyes-1983-reviewJohn Fordham2009-09-10T23:01:00ZCD: Lee Konitz/ Hein Van de Geyn, Meeting Againhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/may/02/jazz.johnfordham2
(Challenge)<p>This is a very different kind of duo music to the pensive ruminations of Surman and Moody: it's played live, adapting familiar standards, and is more of a dialogue between two jazz-steeped improvisers. Konitz, of the legendary 1949 Miles Davis Birth of the Cool nonet, remains one of the world's most fearless and ingenious exponents of improvising freefall. This recording finds him in his most audacious prime, live in Holland in 1990 at the invitation of Dutch bassist Hein Van de Geyn. The latter is a strong, sinewy performer whose lines snap and roll, and he's the ideal foil for Konitz's quizzical, feint-and-weave approach to melody, and the devious camouflaging of a well-known song. They impart an irresistible glint to a collection of classics, from Lover Man to 'Round Midnight by way of Cherokee and Stella By Starlight. Konitz's speculative hoots sometimes hang in space against the bassist's slow hooks. He might let a long note gradually change colour against a steady bass-walk, wriggle an intricate figure into a tight space, or, in the case of Cherokee, hold his sweet-and-sour tonalities for a tantalisingly long time before the expected skimming uptempo episode cuts in. Konitz might be too low-key and whimsical for some, but I could listen to him playing like this for hours.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/may/02/jazz.johnfordham2">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureThu, 01 May 2008 23:09:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/may/02/jazz.johnfordham2John Fordham2008-05-01T23:09:27ZCD: Lee Konitz, Dialogueshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/nov/24/jazz
(Challenge)<p>With his 80th birthday beckoning, Lee Konitz (the definitive saxophonist of the 1950s cool jazz sound) is still sharp. Casual listeners can stall on Konitz's deliberately narrow dynamics (he can sound as if he's permanently in a monotone) and deceptive disguising of familiar songs, but this decade-old session with a Dutch piano trio is worth leaning closer to. Putting an inspired Lover Man and a very sprightly Thingin' (Konitz's reinvention of All the Things You Are) higher up the order might have helped catch the unconverted; but the intro to Yesterdays is delicious, and Dialogue is a group improvisation that could have been fruitfully extended. But it's the murmured resolutions, sudden, brightly declared new motifs and wry elided sounds of the alto sax on Thingin' that are the high points.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/nov/24/jazz">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureFri, 24 Nov 2006 00:10:03 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/nov/24/jazzJohn Fordham2006-11-24T00:10:03ZCD: Bill Evans/Lee Konitz, Play the Arrangements of Jimmy Giuffrehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/sep/09/jazz.shopping
(Lonehill)<p>There may be a reason why this mixed bag of an album gives the late great jazz pianist Bill Evans top billing: this autumn marks the 25th anniversary of his death at 51. He and the altoist Lee Konitz had got together for a concert in February 1959 (a month before Evans made Kind of Blue with Miles Davis), and this compilation joins the studio recording of that summer - Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre - to the autumn 1959 takes that made up You and Lee. So it's really Konitz's album. However, Giuffre's arrangements are so classy and Konitz's playing so inventive that it doesn't matter.</p><p>Konitz, Warne Marsh and Giuffre negotiate a set of smooth-textured arrangements (most of them standards), with Konitz often dazzling. Check him choosing fresh starting places for new motifs on his gentle glide through Moonlight in Vermont, or reacting to Evans's harmonies at a canter on The Song Is You. The tracks from the later session feature a very over-recorded bassist, Lennie Tristano's Sonny Dallas - an intrusion that all but drowns a pensive piece such as You Don't Know What Love Is. But Konitz's resourcefulness soars above all obstacles.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/sep/09/jazz.shopping">Continue reading...</a>Bill EvansLee KonitzJazzMusicCultureFri, 09 Sep 2005 00:16:49 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/sep/09/jazz.shoppingJohn Fordham2005-09-09T00:16:49ZCD: Lee Konitz, A Proper Introduction to Lee Konitzhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jun/18/jazz.shopping
(Intro)<p>Another in Proper's excellent series of introductions to the early work of jazz legends - this time the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, the man whose music the critic Gary Giddins once likened to the sound of someone "thinking out loud". </p><p>Konitz's spare, cool playing wasn't always in fashion with fans who preferred Charlie Parker's intensity and fire, but his long career has confirmed him to be a dedicated improviser with unique insights. These tracks cover Konitz's work from his emergence in the late 1940s, via his own 1951 sextet (with Miles Davis taking a walk-on), though some Stan Kenton big-band material and on to 1953 gigs in Hollywood with Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jun/18/jazz.shopping">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureFri, 18 Jun 2004 01:50:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jun/18/jazz.shoppingJohn Fordham2004-06-18T01:50:15ZCD: Lee Konitz/ Warne Marsh: London Concerthttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/dec/06/jazz.artsfeatures
(Wave Records)<p>The recent UK concert of the 75-year-old Lee Konitz was one of the quiet highlights of the London Jazz Festival. This is also a London concert featuring Konitz, but from 1974 and in partnership with the late Warne Marsh, the extraordinary Californian saxophonist, whose brittle, woody, soprano-sax-like tone on a tenor (drawn from Lester Young, but one of the most individual of all spin-offs from him) and astonishingly sustained linear inventiveness were unique contributions to jazz that have mostly been overlooked. (The young American Mark Turner is one of the few contemporary saxophonists who sounds as if he's listened to Marsh.)</p><p> A padding, understated hybrid of bebop and a kind of baroque counterpoint, it might be a little subdued and doodly-sounding for some. But on a repertoire that mostly concentrates on Broadway standards rather than the genre's high priest Lennie Tristano, there's some exquisite playing. Marsh's own Background Music is a fast cat-and-mouse two-sax scramble, Konitz wraps silvery tracery around Marsh's theme statement on It's You Or No-One, Konitz is meditatively inventive on You Go To My Head, and they eventually both play the piece of genuine Bach counterpoint much of the ensemble work has sounded like all along. Very understated music, but tough and restlessly curious inside.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/dec/06/jazz.artsfeatures">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureFri, 06 Dec 2002 17:16:56 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/dec/06/jazz.artsfeaturesJohn Fordham2002-12-06T17:16:56ZLee Konitz, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Londonhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/nov/26/jazz.artsfeatures
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London<p>The 2002 London jazz festival went out not with a bang but with a whisper on Sunday, courtesy of an old master of the sotto voce delivery: the 75-year-old alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. In the 1950s, Konitz took Charlie Parker's intricate bop-sax phraseology into a completely different dynamic and emotional climate. </p><p>But if he cooled Parker's intense heat, he never lost the jazz drive to treat borrowed or composed materials as catalysts for improvisation rather than ends in themselves - nor his relish for kindling on-the-fly musical relationships with old friends and passing strangers alike. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/nov/26/jazz.artsfeatures">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzJazzMusicCultureTue, 26 Nov 2002 02:39:58 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/nov/26/jazz.artsfeaturesJohn Fordham2002-11-26T02:39:58ZJazz CD releaseshttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/jun/29/shopping.jazz
<p><strong>Brian Kellock</strong> Live at Henry's <br>(Caber) **** <br>£13.99</p><p>Recorded at Henry's Cellar Bar in Edinburgh last November, this disc is a representation of the breadth of pianist Brian Kellock's formidable skills. They range from torrential McCoy Tyner outpourings of streaming runs and incandescent chords, to storming boogie-like unaccompanied journeys (like Hank Jones's Chant), fast, muttering bebop (Lennie's Pennies, one of two Lenny Tristano tunes), and highly lyrical and fragile ballad playing (Kenny Wheeler's Three for Doreen). </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/jun/29/shopping.jazz">Continue reading...</a>Lee KonitzCultureMusicJazzFri, 29 Jun 2001 00:14:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/jun/29/shopping.jazzJohn Fordham2001-06-29T00:14:52Z